Method and system for a wireless universal mobile product interface

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a solution to the needs described above through a system and method for a wireless universal mobile product interface (WUMPI). Generally, products/objects have their own interface, or man-machine-interface (MMI). Technically, the wireless universal mobile product interface of the present invention (WUMPI) innovates this space by replacing the product&#39;s MMI by implementing reverse software control via wireless transmission channel and or Bluetooth wireless technologies to control the mobile device&#39;s screen—replacing the local software component on the mobile device which controls what is shown on the screen in terms of a man-machine-interface (MMI). This enables a product/object within the area of the mobile device to take over control via the wireless transmission channel or other wireless capability of the mobile device and to “extend” the product interface to the mobile device that came within it&#39;s control range, or the product/object&#39;s personal area network (PAN).

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/199,488 filed Apr. 25, 2000.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

[0002] A portion of this patent document contains material which issubject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection tothe facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or thepatent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Officepatent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rightswhatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] This invention relates to the field of wireless communicationssystems. More particularly, the present invention relates to the fieldof systems for enabling mobile electronic commerce including systemsconnecting product devices, micropayment systems and mobile devices, andspecifically to a method and system for allowing a product or similarobject to capture the services of a wireless mobile device within thewireless reach area of the product/object.

BACKGROUND ART

[0004] A technical problem presently exists in the area of reverse-usefor mobile phones and mobile devices as they are currently used. Today,products/objects have their own interface or man-machine-interface(MMI). For example, a soft drink or other type vending machine today hasan MMI wherein the machine displays its wares, prices, provides inputdevices for a person to input the required payments in order to obtain adesired product. If one has no change or bills on hand of the propertype the purchase cannot be made from the machine.

[0005] It is desirable to pay for the machines' offerings using one'smobile phone. It is further desirable that the vending machines'offerings and the price information for the purchase would appear onone's mobile phone's display, so that all one had to do would be to typein his/her secret PIN code to authenticate a transaction to purchase anitem. The vending device would accept a signal to dispense the desireditem and a central payment provider would record the transaction,provide the necessary signal to the machine to provide the product andsubmit a bill to the mobile phone user at month end.

[0006] With the emerging popularity of the Internet as a purchasingtool, the demand for handling electronic payments in a secure and easyway has grown enormously. Credit cards and online account verificationmay yet well suit the handling of medium-priced and expensive goods, butare not economic enough for use with very low value purchases. This iswhy over the last few years a variety of solutions for these so-calledmicropayments have appeared to handle amounts as low as the fraction ofa cent. However, there is a technical problem at present in thedevelopment of effective, concrete and efficient systems which integratemicropayment systems with product devices and related mobile personaldevices.

[0007] Cellphones or mobile phones as they are also called (hereinafter“mobile device”) have become ubiquitous, and initiatives such asBluetooth™ are underway to embed tiny, inexpensive, short-rangetransceivers into the mobile devices that are available today, eitherdirectly or through an adapter device such as a PC Card. The radiooperates on the globally-available unlicensed radio band, 2.45 GHz, andsupports data speeds of up to 721 Kbps, as well as three voice channels.Bluetooth-enabled devices and adapters began to appear in 2000.

[0008] “Bluetooth” is a word used to refer to a technology, or to theSpecial Interest Group (SIG) formed in early 1998 by a group of computerand telecommunications industry leaders, including Intel™, IBM,™Toshiba™, Ericsson™, and Nokia™. These companies together begandeveloping a way for users to connect a wide range of mobile devicesquickly and easily, without cables. To ensure that this technology isseamlessly implemented in a diverse range of devices, these leadersformed a special interest group to design a royalty-free, openspecification technology, code named “Bluetooth.” The SIG has quicklygained membership from companies such as 3COM/Palm™, AxisCommunication™, Compaq™, Dell™, Lucent Technologies UK Limited™,Motorola™, Qualcomm™, Xircom™ and is encouraging the involvement of allother companies interested in offering products taking advantage of astandardized, wireless means for connection. The specification for theBluetooth technology is available on the SIG website atwww.bluetooth.com and is hereby fully incorporated herein by reference.

[0009] The Bluetooth wireless technology is designed to revolutionizethe personal connectivity market by providing freedom from wiredconnections. It is a specification for a small-form factor, low-costradio solution providing links between mobile computers, mobile phonesand other portable handheld devices, and connectivity to the internet.For example, at home, a phone functions as a portable phone (fixed linecharge). When one is on the move, it functions as a mobile phone(cellular charge). And when the phone comes within range of anothermobile phone with built-in Bluetooth wireless technology it functions asa walkie talkie (no telephony charge). It is envisioned that one can usetheir mobile computer to surf the Internet wherever they are, and haveautomatic synchronization of one's desktop, mobile computer, notebook(PC-PDA and PC-HPC) and the mobile phone. Early revisions of thespecification has been released to members of the Bluetooth SIG. Version1.0 was published Q2 1999. Version 2.0 are scheduled to be released inyear 2001.

[0010] Additional efforts are underway to connect all types of devicesto computer systems, and to make these devices callable by other systemsusers anywhere on the network. For example, Sun Microsystems JAVA™ andJINI™ technologies are aimed at embedding microprocessors in variousdevices which can, when connected to a network, provide informationabout the devices characteristics, how to communicate with it, etc.Bluetooth is a network transport protocol that could be used to allowattendee viewing devices to be connected to a JINI compatible systemwithout being physically connected. JINI is described in more detail inthe document titled “Jini(TM) Device Architecture Specification” whichcan be found at the Sun Microsystems web sitewww.sun.com/jini/whitepapers/ and which is incorporated fully herein byreference.

[0011] Alternative embodiments can include other plug-and-participatedevices such as those provided by other network technologiescomplimentary to Bluetooth and JINI, such as Hewlett Packard's™ JetSend™technology which is another example of a service protocol that allowsdevices to intelligently negotiate information exchange.

[0012] Other technologies like Motorola's™ Piano, which can be built ontop of Bluetooth, specifies what sort of information they exchange andhow they communicate. It and other operating systems, like SymbianLtd.s™ Epoc32 for mobile devices, can support Bluetooth and JINItechnology.

[0013] While these and other similar technologies will provide theembedded means for various products and services devices to be enabledto communicate, wirelessly and otherwise, there are no presentmechanisms for using the technologies to extend the products MMI fromthe device itself to unknown nearby wireless devices automatically.

[0014] These is a need in the art for a system and method for a productdevice or service operation to extend its man-machine-interface to suchnearby unknown communications devices in order to simplify the means oftransacting exchanges of goods and services in an extended arena.Similarly, a practical, concrete and useful system for handlingmicropayments using such wireless mechanisms is needed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0015] The present invention provides a solution to the needs describedabove through a system and method for a wireless universal mobileproduct interface (WUMPI). Today, products/objects have their owninterface, or man-machine-interface (MMI). Technically, the wirelessuniversal mobile product interface of the present invention (WUMPI)innovates this space by replacing the product's MMI by implementingreverse software control via infrared and or Bluetooth or other wirelesstechnologies (such as wireless LAN=IEEE 802.11b) to control the mobiledevice's screen—replacing the local software component on the mobiledevice which controls what is shown on the screen in terms of aman-machine-interface (MMI). This enables a product/object within thearea of the mobile device to take over control via the infrared or otherwireless capability of the mobile device and to “extend” the productinterface to the mobile device that came within it's control range, orthe product/object's personal area network (PAN). The infrared and orBluetooth or other wireless technologies (such as wireless LAN=IEEE802.11b) mentioned above will generally be referred to below as the“wireless transmission channel.”

[0016] A system is disclosed for providing reverse-control of a wirelessmobile device in order to perform functions using the wireless mobiledevice for which it was not originally designed. A mechanism isdisclosed for using a protocol to communicate via a wirelesstransmission channel port on a personal computer (PC) to the wirelesstransmission channel port of a mobile phone to take control of themobile phone's menuing, interaction, display and other MMI capabilitiesto create an extended interactive product interface.

[0017] A method is disclosed for using a protocol to communicate via anwireless transmission channel port on a personal computer (PC) to thewireless transmission channel port of a mobile phone to take control ofthe mobile phone's menuing, interaction, display and other MMIcapabilities to create an extended interactive product interface.

[0018] Similarly, a computer program stored on a computer readablemedium or carrier wave is disclosed having computer code mechanisms forusing a protocol to communicate via an wireless transmission channelport on a personal computer (PC) to the wireless transmission channelport of a mobile phone to take control of the mobile phone's menuing,interaction, display and other MMI capabilities to create an extendedinteractive product interface.

[0019] Additionally a system is disclosed for electronically connectinga user via a mobile device to a product device and to a micropaymentsystem.

[0020] Still other embodiments of the present invention will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, wherein is shown and described only the embodiments of theinvention by way of illustration of the best modes contemplated forcarrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention iscapable of modification in various obvious aspects, all withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention.Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded asillustrative in nature and not restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] The features and advantages of the system and method of thepresent invention will be apparent from the following description inwhich:

[0022]FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary Internet distributed systemconfiguration.

[0023]FIG. 2 illustrates a representative general purpose computerconfiguration.

[0024]FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary use of thepresent invention.

[0025]FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary configurationof a system using the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0026] The present invention provides a solution to the needs describedabove through a system and method for a wireless universal mobileproduct interface (WUMPI). Today, products/objects have their owninterface, or man-machine-interface (MMI). Technically, the wirelessuniversal mobile product interface of the present invention (WUMPI)innovates this space by replacing the product's MMI by implementingreverse software control via wireless transmission channel and orBluetooth wireless technologies to control the mobile device'sscreen—replacing the local software component on the mobile device whichcontrols what is shown on the screen in terms of a man-machine-interface(MMI). This enables a product/object within the area of the mobiledevice to take over control via the wireless transmission channel orother wireless capability of the mobile device and to “extend” theproduct interface to the mobile device that came within it's controlrange, or the product/object's personal area network (PAN)

[0027] Other innovations in this space are product specific, andtypically proprietary to that product of vendor or object, and must comewith the product or be bought separately—often with the control logicfor the MMI built into the control device (i.e. such as a remote controldevice for a stereo or TV). WUMPI's key feature of reverse-controllingthe wireless mobile device and “collaborating” with the wireless mobiledevice's MMI capabilities as described above extend the productinterface to any mobile device within the product/objects “personal areanetwork”(PAN) and is unique to our knowledge today.

OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

[0028] The environment in which the present invention is usedencompasses the general computing and telecommunications environments,including wireless communications. A variant of the system operates onSMS over GSM in European environments and a second variant would operateover the Internet as the globally available communication medium.

[0029] Some of the elements of a typical Internet network configurationare shown in FIG. 1, wherein a number of client machines 105 possibly ina branch office of an enterprise, are shown connected to aGateway/hub/tunnel-server/etc. 106 which is itself connected to theinternet 107 via some internet service provider (ISP) connection 108.Also shown are other possible clients 101, 103 similarly connected tothe internet 107 via an ISP connection 104, with these unitscommunicating to possibly a home office via an ISP connection 109 to agateway/tunnel-server 110 which is connected 111 to various enterpriseapplication servers 112, 113, 114 which could be connected throughanother hub/router 115 to various local clients 116, 117, 118. Any ofthese servers 112, 113, 114 could function as a server controlling thecommunications and functions between a mobile device, a vendor/device, apayment function and a billing function of the present invention, asmore fully described below. Any of these client machines could be amobile device which has been captured by the present invention and couldcommunicate wirelessly to another network device as required. In thepreferred embodiment, as described more fully below, a message can besent to a special email address or server for a receiver which is notknown to the mobile device user..

[0030] An embodiment of the WUMPI System of the present invention canoperate on a general purpose computer unit which may comprise some orall of the elements shown in FIG. 2 in the form of a laptop computer.The general purpose system 201 includes a motherboard 203 having thereonan input/output (“I/O”) section 205, one or more central processingunits (“CPU”) 207, and a memory section 209 which may have a flashmemory card 211 related to it. The I/O section 205 is connected to akeyboard 226, other similar general purpose computer units 225, 215which can include an wireless transmission channel (IR) port, a diskstorage unit 223 and a CD-ROM drive unit 217. The CD-ROM drive unit 217can read a CD-ROM medium 219 which typically contains programs 221 andother data. Logic circuits or other components of these programmedcomputers will perform series of specifically identified operationsdictated by computer programs as described more fully below.

[0031] The Mobile Service Link system of the preferred embodiment uses avending machine equipped with an RS232 interface to connect to a PC. Alaptop with wireless transmission channel adapter runs custom-writtensoftware to simulate a virtual vending machine and sends commands to thereal physical one. It transmits transactions to a Qpass™ Engine hostedat the vendor's service centre. A mobile phone with wirelesstransmission channel modem becomes the user interface for the vendingmachine. Using technology from Ericsson™, it receives and interprets thecommands and displays a list of available beverages that the consumercan chose from. In this preferred embodiment, the consumer's mobilephone becomes the user interface for the vending machine, by displayingthe list of available drinks from which to select. A wirelesstransmission channel is used to enable direct communication of themobile terminal with other objects like the vending machine. Therebymobile telecom operator's networks are completely bypassed, reducingtransaction costs and increasing speed. On the back end the of thepreferred embodiment a connection is made to the Qpass existingmicropayment solution to handle payment and billing. The best mode ascurrently known is described in more detail below.

ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

[0032] The following additional background information on wireless andmobile positioning technologies such as SIM Toolkit, Bluetooth, WAP andGSM positioning is provided to aid in understanding the presentinvention which is used to combine in a unique and concrete and usefulmanner a micropayment system with a product device and a mobile wirelessdevice, as well as to take control of a nearby wireless device such as acellphone.

[0033] Enabling technologies for mobile commerce encompass any kind ofwireless technology from a handheld device, even including a supportingnetwork.

[0034] However, communication infrastructure is not the only driver tomake mCommerce work. A very important conceptual detail lies in thecreation of secure, fast and easy-to-use payment mechanisms. Althoughthere are many existing concepts, most of these are limited to purchasesvia the Internet, or are restricted to purchases of digital goods only.

[0035] The preferred embodiment of the present invention will be betterappreciated with an understanding of how these concepts could be appliedto mobile commerce and physical goods purchases. An understanding ofgiven micropayment solutions is critical to achieve this. There are atpresent as many as 20 major players in this field.

[0036] Technological Trends

[0037] Some technologies such as the SIM Application Toolkit, smartcardsand dual-slot phones have been known for a number of years. Othertechnologies such as the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) orBluetooth or Wireless LAN, etc. are emerging at a remarkable speed.

[0038] These are all technologies that enable the creation ofapplications to access value-added services and to conduct purchasesfrom wireless devices. From an infrastructure perspective (handsets,networks), however, development is faster then ever.

[0039] Mobile phones are turned into Internet devices through theintegration of WAP browsers. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) aregoing even further: where one previously needed an additional mobilephone to connect to the Internet, these PDAs now start to have thiscapability integrated into one device. Mobile phones, PDAs and othersimilar hand held devices are generally referred to hereafter as “mobiledevices.” Evolution to 3^(rd) Generation Wireless Networks Global Systemfor Mobile Communication (GSM) GSM technology operates in 900 MHz, 1800MHz and 1900 MHz (US- specific) frequency bands and is the most commonmobile standard in Europe and most of the Asia-Pacific region. Thistechnology is used by more than 50% of the world's mobile phonesubscribers. High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) HSCSD is acircuit-switched protocol based on GSM technology. It enables thetransmission of data at up to four times the speed of the theoreticalwireless transmission rate of 14.4 Kbit/s by using four radio channelssimultaneously. A key limitation of this technology is a call set-uptime of around 40 seconds. General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) GPRS is apacket-switched wireless protocol that offers instant access to datanetworks. Theoretically, it will permit transmission speeds of up to 171Kbit/s. GPRS provides and “always on” connection between the mobileterminal and the network by at the same time optimising the use ofnetwork capacity. Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) EDGEis a higher bandwidth version of GPRS. EDGE will allow trans- missionspeeds of up to 384 Kbit/s, which will make it possible to run mobilemultimedia applications. It is an intermediary stage in the migrationfrom GPRS to UMTS, as EDGE requires the modulation changes that willeventually be used by UMTS. Universal Mobile Telephone System (UMTS)UMTS is a mobile phone system that will enable transmission speeds of upto 2 Mbit/s together with inherent IP support. This so-called 3^(rd)Generation network standard will be able to process data 207 timesfaster than current GSM connections. The standard will finally enablehigh-quality extended mobile data applications, and with increasedcompetition and improved technology, price points will come down.

Evolution to 3^(rd) Generation Wireless Networks (Source: LehmanBrothers)

[0040] With the evolution of wireless networks into the so-called 3^(rd)Generation Networks, it is expected that the limiting transmissionspeeds will soon disappear and open the way for wireless access to anymultimedia source imaginable.

[0041] Moreover, wireless connections to the Internet or Intranet willbe permanent, with no need to dial up. Communications will work, andmore importantly, be charged, per packet (starting with GPRS), therebyenabling completely new services at prices based on real usage.

[0042] Smartcard technology as a means to conduct safe commerce ismaturing. Prices have fallen significantly within the last few years,making smartcards a cheap throwaway article. At the same time, they haveevolved from being a dumb, low-capacity storage medium to intelligentdevices with up to 2 Mb of memory and support for popular programmingplatforms such as Windows™ and Java™.

[0043] Micropayments

[0044] Credit cards and online account verification may yet well suitthe handling of medium-priced and expensive goods for Internetpurchases, but are not economic for use with very low value purchases.This is why over the last few years a variety of solutions for theseso-called micropayments have appeared.

[0045] Digital goods such as music, videos, information services, news,electronic books, online games and adult content can now be sold in aprofitable way. The same applies for pay-per-use services, onlineproduct support or even access to a web site itself. Similar conceptsexisted with French Minitel™ and German BTX ™ online services.

[0046] In the meantime, systems exist that claim to handle amounts aslow as the fraction of a cent. However, these models are not yet shownto be realistic.

[0047] Micropayment Strategies

[0048] Before we go into further detail about micropayment models, it isuseful to have a general view of existing digital money schemes. DigitalMoney Schemes Model Anonymity Economy Peer2Peer Security Transactional-Anetwork, such as the Internet, is used ✓ to create a debit or credit toa traditional deposit account or credit card. In these schemes, no newmoney is created. The physical equivalent would be a check or creditcard charge slip Token-New money is created and held in the form of ✓ ✓✓ electronic entities (often called coins or tokens). Each entity has aspecified value. When purchased a unique identification number is issuedas part of the entity. When turned in, this identification number ischecked centrally in order to prevent entities from being reused. Theentities may be stored on a local PC or on smartcards. The physicalequivalent to this model is cash and Eurocheques or Travellers Checks.Nominal-New money is created and stored in an ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ electronic (bank)account, which may be decreased as payments are made. The account can be“recharged” by transferring money from traditional accounts. Thephysical equivalent to this model is a chequebook.

[0049] Among the different micropayment solutions available on themarket today, most can be reduced to a very basic set of differentconcepts. In general up to four different parties are involved in amicropayment transaction:

[0050] The consumer or buyer of digital and/or physical goods.

[0051] The vendor, either a content provider (if selling digital goods)or a merchant (if selling physical goods), or a combination of both.

[0052] The payment provider, either the technology provider and/or abank, a credit card organisation or system of those financialinstitutions, an ISP or a telecommunications company, providing and/orhosting the micropayment solution. (The terms payment provider and bankwill be used as equivalents and may comprise a whole system of financialinstitutions that is not further detailed.)

[0053] Possible combinations of these players can be examined as asource of revenue, resulting in three different models:

Consumer Centric Model

[0054] In the consumer centric model, the payment provider derives asignificant portion of its revenues from the end-consumer. In additionthe payment provider usually outsources the billing process on behalf ofthe vendor, from which additional royalties are claimed for thisservice. Major players in this model are Magex™, BiBit™ and Millicent™.

ISP-Centric Model

[0055] The ISP-centric model leverages existing investments in billingsystems and Internet infrastructures (for consumer authentication). Itthereby generates new revenue sources for ISPs. Usually, paymentproviders either sell the necessary technology to the ISPs and/orreceive royalties from them. Players in this field include iPIN™,Clickshare™, NetToll™ and NTSyS™.

Bank Centric Model

[0056] Within the bank-centric model, technology is franchised byfinancial institutions from the payment providers. The latter usuallyreceive franchising and transaction fees. Good reputation and trust inthose financial institutions, as well as an existing securityinfrastructure are critical advantages of this model. The dominantplayer in this field is Mondex™.

[0057] All micropayment solutions can be reduced to essentially twodifferent paradigms:

“The Deferred Aggregator”

[0058] The “deferred aggregator” summarises all those micropaymentsolutions where small purchases are summed up until the end of a cycle(“deferred”) and then billed to the consumer's account or credit card.In most cases, vendors would receive payment at the end of the agreedcycle directly by the mediating party.

[0059] Sometimes consumer bank accounts would be debited immediately,but vendors would still be paid with a delay, giving the mediating partythe opportunity to take an additional cut (apart from transaction fees)by using this money.

[0060] Among the players using this dominant micropayment model areClickshare™, eCharge™, ehpt™, InterCoin™, iPIN™, KLELine™, Magex™, IBM™,NetChex™, NetToll™, Qpass™ and TrivNet™.

“Prepaid Digital Cash”

[0061] This model is relevant for several different types of accounts,from simple, prepaid consumer accounts, held at the payment provider, tovirtual bank accounts with electronic money, hosted by a bank or othertrusted financial institution. When a purchase is made, the price isdeducted real-time from the consumer's digital account. Paymentproviders make their money through transaction fees and by using anytemporary monetary “overcapacities” for investments.

[0062] Some of the players that use this model are CyberCash™,DigiCash™, Millicent™, NetBill™, OneClickCharge™ and SmartAxis™.

[0063] Existing Solutions

[0064] Today there is an almost overwhelming number of different andnon-different micropayment solutions, some of which have provensuccessful in a particular nitche, others that have not.

[0065] The micropayment system provider of interest in the preferredembodiment is Qpass™(www.Qpass.com).

[0066] Qpass was founded in June 1997 and first launched its service inMarch 1999. Among Qpass' content partners are The Wall Street Journal™,The New York Times™, Corbis™ and others. Strategic partners compriseAccenture™, Trivnet™ Netcentives™ and more.

[0067] Through its system, Qpass claims to be able to handletransactions with values as low as $1 and up. Purchases are aggregatedby Qpass and charged to the consumer's credit card at the end of themonth (see the Qpass Business Model figure below). Qpass recentlypartnered with Trivnet in order to provide consumer billing throughtelcos, ISPs and others.

[0068] Support for different currencies is planned for the next release.Vendors are paid by Qpass directly.

[0069] No additional hard- or software is required for the consumer. Forvendors, Qpass provides and installs necessary software enhancements andtrains vendor personnel. The service is free for consumers. Vendors payQpass an initial installation fee depending on effort and subsequently ashare of the sales on a pro-rata basis.

[0070] Transaction security is granted through conventional ID andpassword technique and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. Allconsumer data is kept by Qpass unless the user allows forwarding of datato vendors.

[0071] Besides easy handling of payments, Qpass provides consumers witha set of administrative functions on its web site to centrally maintainelectronic bills (including product passwords and serial numbersreceived) for purchases from a Qpass-enabled vendor. Additionaltechnical details on the Qpass Transaction Processing Solution can beobtained from their web site at www.Qpass.com which is herebyincorporated fully herein.

[0072] While the Qpass system is used in the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention, there appear to exist many other possible solutionsto the micropayment problem. All of the known solutions miss one aspect,however, the independence of a storage medium. To make payments moreconvenient, an electronic cash solution should enable the user to keepcapital on all sorts of media, such as PCs, PDAs, smartcards and onaccounts in the network (telco, bank, payment provider). Additionally,it should be easy to transfer funds between different parties, forexample via e-mail or even using the file transfer protocol (ftp). Thepreferred embodiment of the present invention as described in moredetail below, provides a system and mechanism for such transfers.

[0073] Smartcards

[0074] Smartcards are credit card-sized plastic cards with an integratedmemory and microprocessor chip. The use of smartcards ranges from thesimple storing of personal and/or valuable information to holding andrunning complete software applications.

[0075] SIM-cards (Subscriber Identification Module) are a specialvariant of smartcards, used in European GSM phones. SIM cards are ableto execute applications on the mobile handset and can even modify itsmenu structure. Applications can either be written using a proprietaryplatform, provided by the card manufacturer, or according to the SIMApplication Toolkit specification (part of the GSM standard). The latterwill run on almost all mobile phones, manufactured after 1998. Thissection gives a GSM-specific overview of what kind of applications arepossible with smartcards. It therefore concentrates on the descriptionof the SIM Application Toolkit and what development tools are available.Another focus is set on mobile smartcard readers (dual-slot mobilephones) and how these enable eCommerce. Additionally, differentapproaches to provide prepaid solutions, using smartcards, are describedbelow.

[0076] SIM Application Toolkit

[0077] SIM Application Toolkit (“SIM Toolkit” or, “STK”) is an ETSI(European Telecommunications Standard Institute) standard for ValueAdded Services (VAS) and eCommerce over GSM mobile phones.

[0078] In 1995, the first ideas and draft documents were specified as aresult of some network operator's desire to offer servicedifferentiation without the need for mobile manufacturers having tobuild different models or variants of their mobile phones. The conceptwas then incorporated into the GSM standard as part 11.14, later in1996.

[0079] Besides the ability to enhance and change a mobile's menu system,SIM Toolkit allows the flexibility to update the SIM with new servicesdirectly downloaded. Moreover, network operators can remotely provisionthe user's wireless terminal, simply by sending specific codes embeddedin SMS messages from the server.

[0080] SIM Toolkit applications are generally updated and communicatethrough SMS messages, but may in the near future move to another meansof transport such as Unstructured Supplementary Services Data strings(USDD) or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS).

[0081] The features of the SIM Toolkit can be classified into fivedifferent categones:

[0082] Man-Machine Interface (getting user input, playing sound)

[0083] Communication Services (sending SMSs, setting up calls)

[0084] Menu Management & Application Control (menu structure)

[0085] Accessory Management (Dual Slot phone commands)

[0086] Miscellaneous (SIM card settings)

[0087] Compared to the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), the SIMToolkit is more mature since it is at a later stage in development. Ingeneral, SIM Toolkit is seen rather as complementary than competitive toWAP, or at least as a step towards WAP.

[0088] Major Players

[0089] Since its first release, the SIM Application Toolkitspecification has been taken up in several major manufacturers' phoneranges and is supported by a variety of new and established networkoperators. These operators have even stipulated that all new phonessupplied on their network must support the SIM Application Toolkit.

[0090] Handset Manufacturers

[0091] As of October 1998, the major handset manufacturers have, or havecommitted to SIM Toolkit compatible handsets (including NEC™, Sagem™,Ericsson™, Philips™, Nokia™, Sony™, Panasonic™, Motorola™, Siemens™,Alcatel™, Mitsubishi™ and Bosch™).

[0092] SIM Toolkit commands have been grouped into classes for handsetsto support (classes apply to handsets, not to SIM cards). Up to datethere are three classes, as detailed in Table 1. TABLE 1 SIM ApplicationToolkit Classes (Source: ETSI, GSM 11.14) SIM Application ToolkitCommand Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Call Control ✓ ✓ Cell Broadcast Download✓ ✓ Display Text ✓ ✓ Event Download ✓ Get Inkey ✓ ✓ Get Input ✓ ✓ GetReader Status ✓ Menu Selection ✓ ✓ MO Short Message Control ✓ More Time✓ ✓ Perform Card APDU ✓ Play Tone ✓ ✓ Polling Off ✓ ✓ Poll Interval ✓ ✓Power On Card ✓ Power Off Card ✓ Provide Local Information ✓ ✓ Refresh ✓✓ ✓ Select Item ✓ ✓ Send Short Message ✓ ✓ Send SS ✓ ✓ Send USSD ✓Set-Up Call ✓ ✓ Set-up Event List ✓ Set-up Menu ✓ ✓ SMS-PP Download ✓ ✓✓ Timer Management/Timer Expiration ✓

[0093] Support of SIM Application Toolkit is optional for handsets.However, a handset claiming to support all SIM Toolkit functions, doesnot necessarily need to support them all, but at least all functionswithin a class (see Table 1). An overview of current handsets thatsupport SIM Application Toolkit is given in Table 2. TABLE 2 SIMApplication Toolkit compatible handsets Class Manufacturer Model(s)Class 1 2 Class 3 Alcatel One Touch Easy ✓ ✓¹ Alcatel One TouchClub/Club + ✓ ✓¹ Alcatel One Touch Max ✓ ✓¹ Alcatel One Touch Pocket ✓✓¹ Alcatel One Touch Easy Dual Band ✓ ✓² Alcatel One Touch View DualBand ✓ ✓ Bosch GSM 509/509 Dual ✓ ✓ Bosch World 718 ✓ Bosch Dual-Com 738✓ Bosch GSM 908 ✓ Bosch GSM 909 Dual/Dual S ✓ ✓ Ericsson T28s/T28 World✓ ✓ Ericsson T18s ✓ ✓ Ericsson T10s ✓ ✓ Ericsson A1018s ✓ ✓ MitsubishiTrium Galaxy ✓ ✓ Mitsubishi Trium Astral ✓ ✓ Mitsubishi Trium Geo ✓ ✓Mitsubishi Trium Aria ✓ ✓ Mitsubishi Trium Cosmo ✓ ✓ Motorola TimeportL7089 ✓ ✓ ✓ Motorola v.3688 ✓ ✓ Motorola Star TAC 130 ✓ ✓ Motorola CD92x✓ ✓ Motorola CD93x ✓ ✓ Motorola L2000 ✓ ✓ Motorola L7089 ✓ ✓ MotorolaP7389 ✓ ✓ Motorola M30 ✓ ✓ NEC DB500 ✓ ✓³ ✓³ NEC DB2000 ✓ ✓³ ✓³ NECDB4000 ✓ ✓³ ✓³ Nokia 3210 ✓ ✓ Nokia 5190⁴ ✓ ✓ Nokia 6150 ✓ ✓ Nokia 6190⁴✓ ✓ Nokia 7110 ✓ ✓ Nokia 7190⁴ ✓ ✓ Nokia 8210 ✓ ✓ Nokia 8850 ✓ ✓Panasonic GD90 ✓ ✓ Panasonic GD70 ✓ ✓ Panasonic GD50 ✓ ✓ Panasonic GD30✓ ✓ Philips Savy/Savy DB ✓ ✓ Philips Genie/Genie DB ✓ ✓ Philips Xenium ✓✓ Sagem GPRS ✓ ✓ ✓ Samsung SGH-800 ✓ ✓ Samsung SGH 2100 ✓ ✓ ✓ SamsungSGH 2200 ✓ ✓ ✓ Siemens S25 ✓ ✓ Siemens S2588 ✓ ✓ Siemens C25 ✓ ✓ SiemensSL10 ✓ ✓ Siemens S10/S10 active ✓ ✓ Siemens S11 ✓ ✓ Siemens C10/C10D ✓✓⁵ Siemens C11 ✓ ✓⁵ Sony C1 ✓ ✓

[0094] Network Operators

[0095] Since the introduction of the standard SIM Toolkit, it has beensupported by Dutchtone™ (Netherlands), Orange™ (UK), D1 T-Mobil™ andVIAG™ Interkom (Germany), Telecom Italia™ Mobile (Italy), KPN Orange™(Belgium) and many more.

[0096] A variety of SIM Toolkit powered value-added services exist inproduction today.

Development Tools and Products

[0097] Today, almost all of the SIM card manufacturers offer applicationdevelopment suites to develop programs according to the SIM ApplicationToolkit (GSM 11.14) standard. However, those environments differ incapabilities such as Java and multi-platform (multi-SIM) support.

[0098] In order to resolve those issues, a group of major players(GEMPLUS™, Giesecke & Devrient™, ORGA™ and Schlumberger™) has recentlyformed the SIM Alliance. Microsoft™ is also getting into co-operationsto promote Visual Basic™ and Windows for Smartcards™ in order to get astake in this market.

[0099] Dual slot phones are mobile phones with an integrated smartcardreader. They allow the extension of smartcard-based payment concepts tothe wireless terminal. Any smartcard, be it a credit or banking card ora prepaid public phone card, could be used to conduct payments directlyfrom a mobile phone, thereby turning it into a mobile payment terminal.

[0100] Taking the example of prepaid cards, dual-slot mobile phonescould enable these to suddenly become a much broader means of payment.Not only could they be used to make phone calls in public phones butalso to pay for mobile calls or even goods and services. TABLE 3Dual-Slot Mobile Phones Manufacturer Model(s) Alcatel One Touch Pocket⁶Motorola StarTac D Motorola Timeport L7089⁷ Sagem MC 840 M

[0101] Some major advantages are immediately visible:

[0102] Replacement cards can be purchased literally everywhere, thedistribution infrastructure is already in place;

[0103] Prepaid cards are widely accepted, they are handy and help peoplekeep track of their spending;

[0104] No time-consuming and expensive online credit limit verificationis needed, transactions are cheap and fast;

[0105] Just like cash, payments are anonymous.

[0106] However, only the future will show if these advantages aresufficient for the success of dual-slot mobile phones. Although somemajor manufacturers such as Motorola, Alcatel and Sagem have developedhandsets (see Table 3), so far no real public rollout has been achieved.

[0107] Prepaid Solutions

[0108] Prepaid systems can be used today to pay for all kind of servicesand goods. There are different technical paradigms and ways to rechargeprepaid accounts.

[0109] Technical Paradigms for Pre-paid Solutions

[0110] Three different technical paradigms can generally bedistinguished for prepaid solutions:

[0111] Handset Based Solutions

[0112] This solution is used to handle prepaid cellular phone accountsonly. In this case the handset itself contains software and a chip thatstores the pre-paid airtime. The restrictions of this model areobviously that it requires a special handset, which at the same timebinds the subscriber to a specific operator. Given the advent of SIMcards and the costs that occur due to the customised production ofhandsets, this solution is likely to disappear.

[0113] Card Based Solutions

[0114] In a card-based system the prepaid value is stored on the chip ofa smartcard. In addition, this solution requires a GSM Phase 2 compliantphone. Thanks to the so-called Advice of Charge (AoC) and SIMApplication Toolkit functionality, the prepaid account can be rechargedover the air (usually via SMS). Applications of card-based prepaidsolutions reach further than only the handling of cellular phoneaccounts. Being a sort of digital currency, where the money is directlytaken from the card, payments for all kinds of goods and services may beconducted. With the maturation of smartcard technology and given itsease of use, this solution is likely to become dominant in the nearfuture.

[0115] Network Based Solutions

[0116] In a network-based system the value of the prepaid account isstored somewhere on a server hosted by the network operator. When theaccount is recharged, then the purchased value is simply added to thecurrent amount, stored on the server. This is by far the most appliedsolution today. Again, it is mainly applied to handle prepaid cellularphone accounts, however, one could also imagine to pay for goods usingsuch accounts.

[0117] Recharging of Prepaid Accounts

[0118] A variety of different concepts exist to recharge prepaidaccounts, some of which apply to public or cellular phone systems only.Others may be used to recharge prepaid accounts for any kind of paymentssuch as for cantina lunches or to buy beverages from vending machines.

[0119] Replacing the Card

[0120] The most common, and simplest, solution for “recharging” aprepaid account is to actually buy a new pre-charged card. Production ofsmartcards has become so mature that cost is no longer an issue.

[0121] Automatic Recharging

[0122] In this solution the subscriber's prepaid account isautomatically re-charged in chunks of the agreed value, once thesubscriber's account goes under a predefined threshold, the amount isusually either directly debited from the bank, or charged to theconsumer's credit card.

[0123] Recharging by Call

[0124] In this case, the subscriber has to actually call a phoneoperator or service provider to re-charge the account. Again, paymentmay be deducted from the bank, or charged to a credit card. In countriessuch as Italy, consumers can also buy specific scratch cards. Thesecontain a secret number to be communicated to an automatic responseapplication under a predefined phone number. In Italy, it is alsopossible to recharge your prepaid account at ATMs. The consumer simplyhas to enter their phone number and PIN code and the amount is thenautomatically deducted from their bank account, and the bank reports thenew prepaid balance to the network operator.

[0125] Recharging by SMS

[0126] Similar to the recharging by call, in this case the subscriberhas to send a short message (SMS) to the network operator, who inreturn, will refill the account. Payment is conducted in the way thatwas agreed upon the consumer's subscription.

[0127] Recharging using Public Phone Infrastructure

[0128] Some cellular phone operators such as French Itineris™ allowtheir subscribers to recharge their accounts using the existing publicphone infrastructure. Since most of the public phones today are equippedwith smartcard readers anyway, a subscriber can simply walk into a phonebooth, dial a special number and code and insert his banking or creditcard. The selected amount is then added to his prepaid account on thenetwork or over the air to his SIM card.

[0129] Dual Slot Phones

[0130] A new kind of handsets, equipped with an integrated smartcardreader, enables this way of account recharging. To do so, the subscriberwould, for example, use a SIM Toolkit application provided by thenetwork operator to select the amount. Subsequently, the subscriberwould pay by simply inserting his credit card into the phone's secondslot and punching in the PIN code.

[0131] Applications for Prepaid Systems

[0132] A large variety of different applications are offered today whenusing prepaid solutions:

[0133] Public and Mobile Phones

[0134] For public and mobile phones, simple throwaway memory cards aresold with a preloaded value to be deducted with each call. This is themost common application for prepaid card systems and it is available inalmost any European country.

[0135] Vending Machines

[0136] Companies often provide prepaid cards to their employees to beused with vending and coffee machines.

[0137] CANTV™, the largest telecommunications provider in Venezuela,goes even beyond this and has recently introduced a program that allowsowners of prepaid phone cards to use these for other purposes, such asbuying beverages at vending machines. Given the huge investment thattelecoms. have put into smartcard infrastructure, these kinds ofconcepts are likely to be copied by other major players.

[0138] Public Transport and Parking

[0139] In Switzerland, precisely in Geneva and Lausanne, prepaid smartcards are used to pay for public transportation such as busses. Peoplecan thereby avoid the need to carry change all the time for payments.

[0140] US-based POM™ Inc. manufactures parking meters that are able toread and deduct parking fees from prepaid smartcards. The advantage ofthis system is that it is fairer, since it allows payment on a perminute basis, whereas traditional systems usually charge in blocks of 15minutes.

[0141] Internet Access and Purchasing

[0142] Philippines' WEBSCAPE™ introduced a prepaid Internet access cardin 1997. This card provides users prepaid Internet access for a limitedamount of time, thereby helping them to keep track of their spending.Moreover, there is massive use of prepaid solutions for purchasing goodson the Internet.

[0143] Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)

[0144] The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) was designed to bringInternet content and data services to mobile phones and other wirelessterminals.

[0145] To achieve this, WAP uses the Wireless Mark-up Language (WML),that is optimised for wireless handheld mobile terminals. WML is astripped down version of HTML. The WML language is specifically designedto meet the needs of wireless devices.

[0146] Initially WAP was created by a group of companies such as telecommanufacturers (Nokia™, Ericsson™, Motorola™), network operators(Sonera™, Telia™, AT&T™, DT™, France Telecom™) and software and servicecompanies (IBM™, RSA™, Unwired Planet™, Symbian™). The WAP Forum wasfounded to ensure the global success of the standard and keep itindependent. The technology has been designed to accommodate most of thewireless transmission standards such as CDPD, CDMA, GSM, PDC, PHS, TDMA,TETRA and DECT. Its architecture corresponds with the InternationalStandard's (ISO's) 7-layer OSI model.

[0147] WAP also specifies a proxy server (usually hosted by the networkprovider) that acts as a gateway between the wireless network and thewireline Internet, providing protocol translation. To optimise the datatransfer for the limited transmission speeds of today's wirelessnetworks, the gateway translates WAP pages into so-called bytecode.

[0148] Still WAP is rather new, with only a few terminal devicesavailable today. Within the next 3-4 years, however, WAP devices areexpected to globally outnumber personal computers as the major accessdevice for Internet services.

[0149] Among the list of devices, available today, are recent handsetsfrom Nokia™ (6150 and 7110), Ericsson™ (E320 and R380), Siemens™ (S25),Mitsubishi™(T250) and Samsung™ (SGH-810). Apart from handsets, a varietyof WAP servers, gateways and microbrowsers for PDAs are available.

[0150] WAP Identity Module (WIM)

[0151] The current WAP version 1.1 provides no security features thatare vital for applications such as online banking and purchasing. Thisis why the WAP Forum has created the WAP Identity Module (WIM)specification.

[0152] WIM is a mechanism that can be implemented as an applicationrunning on a smartcard or be placed on a tamper resistant device such asa mobile phone. WIM is intended to provide the same level of securityfor mobile commerce applications that currently can only be achievedthrough SIM Toolkit.

[0153] The WIM will address two fundamental security issues. The firstone is securing the wireless transport layer (WTLS) between the WAPgateway server and the mobile client terminal. This can be consideredthe same kind of functionality as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) used onthe Internet today. WIM will ensure mutual authentication andconfidentiality using cryptography algorithms that are stored on thesmartcard or device.

[0154] The second part of the security function is to secure theapplication layer through the use of digital certificates and othernon-repudiation techniques. WIM will therefore be using public key andRSA™ encryption technology.

[0155] The WIM module is designed in a way that it can either run as astand-alone or together with other applications running on the samesmartcard or device. In particular, a smartcard hosting the WIM moduledoes not necessarily need to be a SIM card. For example, the WIM modulecould just as well reside on a banking card, in order to allow securemobile payments with a dual-slot phone. WIM functionality is accessibleto WAP applications (using WML script) as well as to standard smartcardapplications.

[0156] Given the importance of WIM for future mobile commerceapplications, a number of major smartcard manufacturers are currentlydeveloping such cards. Among these new products is the ConnectIC™ SIMcard by Oberthur Card Systems™ and the Simera e-motion™ by Schlumberger™(using PKI technology from Entrust™). Both cards will support Java™ andbe compliant with the WAP 1.2 WIM specification.

[0157] WAP vs. SIM Application Toolkit

[0158] Although WAP is network-based, whereas SIM Toolkit is running onthe SIM card inside the handset, both technologies provide a variety ofsimilar functions. Both allow a dynamic user interface to be displayedon the handset and to be automatically updated over the air. However,awaiting the arrival of WIM, WAP does not yet provide security featuresin the same way as the SIM Toolkit.

[0159] Given the advanced maturity of the SIM Application Toolkit(especially of the push-mechanism and for security support) at thisstage, both technologies must be considered complementary rather than indirect competition.

[0160] Stockholm-based company Across Wireless™ (www.acrosswireless.com)is providing a WAP browser based on SIM Application Toolkit. Thissoftware will enable the majority of today's mobile phones to access WAPpages.

[0161] However, due to WAP's more dynamic nature and the fact thatapplications, located on the subscriber's SIM card, are necessarily very‘thin’, the balance is likely to change in the future in favour of WAP,as the technology is evolving. WAP is also more flexible in the sensethat it leverages the whole Internet infrastructure that is already inplace today.

[0162] Development Tools and Products

[0163] For developers both Nokia™ and Ericsson™ provide free PC-basedsoftware simulators (device and browser) and gateway servers.

[0164] Major network operators as well as other companies are launchingWAP services and companies that set these up for internal use—forexample, Accenture™ itself (the assignee of the present invention).Common applications of WAP are the provision of information servicessuch as city maps (SFR), weather forecasts and newsfeeds (FranceTelecom™) as well as e-mail and banking (Swisscom™).

[0165] Also other applications, known from the Internet, are brought toWAP—for instance German Linguatec™ brings you free translations servicesto your mobile phone. Internet giants like AOL™ are equally investinginto their WAP infrastructure and finish Nokia™ have announced toprovide Scandic Hotels™, the largest Scandinavian hotel chain, withWAP-based booking services.

[0166] After the first enthusiastic wave of WAP pick-up, fuirtherdevelopment of mCommerce solutions will depend on the standards'security extension. Although planned, currently no real securitymechanisms are available for WAP, which is one of the standards' mostimportant drawbacks at this point. Companies like BaltimoreTechnologies™ and Certicom™ are trying to fill this hole withproprietary security solutions.

[0167] A complete list of companies providing WAP services and products,including a description of their offering, is given by the WAPDeployment Fact Sheet, that can be downloaded from www.wapforum.org. Thedocument is constantly being updated.

[0168] Bluetooth

[0169] Bluetooth is a short range (usually up to 10 meters, with certainrestrictions even 100 meters) radio technology that enables high-speedaudio- and data-transmissions between devices. The components that willbe integrated into such devices are small and expected to become verycheap. Since Bluetooth operates within the globally availableIndustrial-Scientific-Medical 2.4 Ghz band, world-wide compatibility isensured. In the future, Bluetooth may well replace current infrared(IrDa) technology.

[0170] The invention of the Bluetooth technology goes back to 1994. Thename is derived from a Danish Viking king. In February 1998, Ericsson™,Nokia™, IBM™, Intel™ and Toshiba™ decided to form the Bluetooth SpecialInterest Group to standardise the concept. Since then over 1500companies, including other major players like Motorola™, 3Com™, Lucent™and Microsoft™ have joined the wave. It is expected that by 2002 morethan 100 million mobile phones will be equipped with Bluetoothtechnology.

[0171] Important Features of the Technical Architecture

[0172] Key applications of Bluetooth are the synchronisation ofdifferent pieces of equipment such as mobile phones, PDAs and PCs.Additionally, there is data exchange with point-of-sale terminals,ticketing or e-wallet applications for mobile commerce might also boostthe success of Bluetooth. Given its throughput of up to 2 Mbit/s,Bluetooth is also well suited for wireless LAN connectivity. This isactually where the majority of the development efforts are currentlyheading.

[0173] Looking at Bluetooth the following wireless main applications canbe identified:

[0174] Wireless Networking (i.e. LAN access and file transfer)

[0175] Device Connectivity (i.e. mobile device to headset)

[0176] Synchronisation (i.e. desktop PC to a mobile device)

[0177] Universal Phones (i.e. mobile device to be used for local callsalike)

[0178] In order to handle the complexity that arises through theconnection of so many different appliances, Bluetooth features a set ofprotocols to automatically identify any Bluetooth-enabled appliances inrange, find out about their capabilities and link them together.

[0179] IBM was the first with its Salutation Manager, essentially a setof easy-to-use APIs that implement these protocols. In a real systemeach service or object would have its own Salutation Manager and use itas a single interface to perform its own advertising and to handlecommunication with other Bluetooth objects. Salutation Managers act asbrokers and communicate among themselves on behalf of their objects,using their own specific protocol. Besides service discovery andregistry, Bluetooth also standardises checking of service availabilityand session management.

[0180] Development Tools and Products

[0181] The availability of Bluetooth development tools and end-userproducts is still very limited. In fact, only a few hardware providerssuch as Ericsson™ and Digianswer™ currently offer Bluetooth developmentKits.

[0182] However, a variety of Bluetooth products have been announced,some of which were already demonstrated as prototypes. For example,Ericsson has recently revealed its wireless headset that allows users ofmobile phones to conduct calls while leaving their phone in the pocket.Also Ericsson has announced a portable device that allows browsing theInternet through a Bluetooth connection.

[0183] Other products to come are PC wireless LAN cards (TDK™, Widcomm™,Acer™ and Motorola™) and a range of hands-free kits. The constantlygrowing range of available and planned products is listed on sites suchas www.bluetooth.com and www.bluetooth.net.

[0184] Mobile Positioning

[0185] Mobile positioning technology, based on GSM, gives the ability tolocate a mobile phone geographically. GSM positioning is a keytechnology, which will permit the distribution of highly valuable,localised and personalised information. However, while one can do mobilepositioning with Bluetooth and GSM, mobile positioning is not a mainpurpose of current listed standards for these technologies.

[0186] At present, it is too early to determine which of thetechnologies will dominate the market. The missing link will be to bringcompanies that provide the content together with geo-coded information,to make use of the technology.

[0187] Applications using mobile location service technologies includefleet management, vehicle tracking for security, tracking for recoveryin event of theft, telemetry, emergency services, locationidentification, navigation, location-based information services andlocation-based advertising.

[0188] The following solutions exist today:

[0189] Cellpoint™ (formerly Technor Inc.) is located in Stockholm,Sweden. Their GSM positioning solution is based on a concept called CellOf Origin (COO). Here, the information of the cell that the handset isconnected to is mapped against the geographical position by using adatabase of base stations.

[0190] The system requires no modification to the mobile terminal, butthe network operator has to do some significant upgrade work. Theaccuracy of the system depends on the cell size. Therefore, it isusually better suited for urban areas than for rural ones.

[0191] In addition to the technology, Cellpoint offers value-addedservices, starting from personal position identification to locatingother persons. For example, when trying to find a friend, the Cellpointserver would send an SMS message to the friend's phone that would (ifdisclosure of position is enabled) be processed by a SIM Toolkitapplication. The phone then generates a reply, containing the currentcell information, and returns it again via SMS. The Cellpoint server canthen map the cell information contained in the SMS to a geographicallocation.

[0192] Ericsson™ provides a proprietary GSM positioning technology,called Enhanced Observed Time Difference (E-OTD) that is currently onlyavailable for networks based on Ericsson switches. Ericsson's MobileLocation Center, calculates the phone's position. It works by comparingthe relative times of arrival, at the handset and at a nearby fixedreceiver, of signals transmitted by the underlying mobile network basestations. The E-OTD system overlays an existing mobile network.

[0193] The advantage of this technology is that it allows an accurateand consistent quality of service, independent of the network density atthe user's location. Both ETSI and ANSI have decided to jointly developa GSM mobile positioning standard, based on Ericsson's system.

[0194] Alcatel™ provides GSM positioning services through an SMS-basedsystem similar to the Cellpoint one. However, Alcatel offers a WAP-baseduser interface to access these services, which consists of thetransmission of graphical street maps to the mobile handset. AmongAlcatel's technology partners for these solutions are GEMPLUS™ andWebraska™.

[0195] Cambridge Positioning Systems™ is a UK-based start-up companythat provides a GSM positioning system named CURSOR. The system worksusing triangulation and signal timing between base stations in reach ofthe handset. The actual calculation is conducted on the network sideevery time the mobile phone changes base station, so that theinformation is already available when requested. The accuracy of thissystem is said to be around 50 m of range.

[0196] Binary SMS

[0197] The success of SMS, especially among the younger consumers, urgesnetwork operators and equipment manufacturers to provide more and userfriendly services. This is why Nokia has created its proprietary binarySMS standard.

[0198] Binary SMS encodes binary data in normal SMS messages, therebyenabling mobile handsets (provided they support this functionality) toreceive and send images and ring tones.

[0199] Today several network operators offer Internet portals, wherecustomers can select icons and ring tones and have those sent directlyto their mobile phone. Some examples are French Bouygues Telecom™(www.musicformobile.fr), Finish Sonera™ and German Mannesman™.

[0200] The last two have developed their services using an API providedby Finnish Akumiitti™. This product provides support for sending ofringing tones, icons, picture messaging and chat services.

[0201] However, given that binary SMS is a proprietary standard, it iscurrently limited to Nokia phones only. Provided that the number of SMSsare sent directly from one handset to another, Nokia has also developeda messaging platform named Artus™, to cover “mobile-to-mobile” picturemessaging.

[0202] From this description of current technologies, it can beconcluded that:

[0203] 1) Payment solutions exist “en masse”, however, only very few aredesigned to work for mobile commerce (ehpt, Paybox);

[0204] 2) Smartcards are widely accepted and will increase in importanceand capabilities (memory capacity, processing speed);

[0205] 3) SIM Toolkit is established and widely used, however, it willeventually be replaced by WAP;

[0206] 4) WAP, Bluetooth and GSM Positioning are only just emerging, butwill have the most substantial impact on the future of mobile commerce.

[0207] In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a subset ofthese technologies has been chosen to create a demonstrable prototypethat showcases the use of such technologies. The preferred embodiment ofthe present invention is now described in more detail.

THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0208] The starting-point is the basic proximity device, a Bluetoothchip that can be incorporated in the smallest, lightest mobile phone.With any Bluetooth-enabled machine—a drinks dispenser, photocopymachine, petrol pump or parking meter, for instance—the user can placean order, receive the goods and pay for them electronically via ahand-held device.

[0209] In a preferred embodiment, the invention can be used for otherpurposes, such as accessing the drink vendor's website or using theirtelephone system. And from the drink vendor's viewpoint, if the companyalready has an avenue of communication to a customer, they can exploitit to offer other services—perhaps from other suppliers who will behappy to pay a percentage to their new partner. For example, somemarketing companies might be happy to offer a free Coke to any customerprepared to give a moment of their time to answer a question or two. Andfor an impoverished student, such an offer might well be irresistible.

[0210] This new marketplace is what applicants call the BluetoothService Portal (BSP). Once users have established a connection via BSP,in alternate embodiments users can access additional services. Usingtheir mobile phone to connect to the Internet, a user can be able tochoose from a wide range of products and services as and when they wantthem.

[0211] For example, in an alternate embodiment if a customer is usingBSP in connection with their Xerox copier, they might wish to order morecopy paper, and perhaps additional office supplies at the same time. Theoverwhelming attraction is that this conduit is absolutely free. Eventhough you are using your wireless phone, it won't show up on yourmonthly bill. From the vendor's viewpoint, it is easy to envisage amassive variety of services that Xerox might offer its customers viaBSP.

[0212] In an alternate environment, Bluetooth technology enables thecustomer to record preferences, so that, for instance, every time theypass a drinks machine, the machine will be programmed to dispense thecustomer's favourite drink. But this in turn provides the vendor withcustomer information that makes it much easier to tailor productofferings in accordance with customer preferences. In still anotheralternate embodiment, the personalisation of products can be extended,such as for example, a simple prompt from the Bluetooth-enabled phonewould communicate with another chip in the car and adjusts the seats,mirrors and steering-wheel to the individual driver before the door isopened.

[0213] More specifically, in the preferred embodiment, assume it's anice and hot day and you are walking by a vending machine that sellsdrinks. You are very thirsty, but unfortunately you do not have anycoins with you. Additionally, you are in transit through a differentcountry and you didn't even pick up foreign currency.

[0214] In the preferred embodiment, the drink list of the vendingmachine, including prices, would automatically appear on your mobilephone's display. So all you would need to do is to select your drink andtype in your Qpass™ password, that you are using for your Internetpurchases anyway, in order to authenticate.

[0215] Your Qpass Membership ID, that happens to be the unique serialnumber or your phone number, would be requested from the handsetdirectly, taking away the hassle of having to punch this one in.Nonetheless the security of your “mobile wallet” would be granted, sinceyou need to know the secret PIN to unlock your mobile phone upon powerup, plus you need to be in possession of the physical device itself.

[0216] The vending machine would now drop your can of Coke and you couldrelax and enjoy your drink. You know that Qpass will send you a detailedbill, with all your purchases at the end of the month, and charge theoverall amount to your credit card.

[0217] The exemplary embodiment of the present invention will discussthis scenario in more detail below.

[0218] In the discussion which follows, the following glossary applies:

[0219] ETSI European Telecommunications Standard Institute

[0220] GPRS General Packet Radio Service

[0221] GSM Global System for Mobile Communications

[0222] OTA Over The Air uploading of modified SIM Toolkit applications

[0223] SIM Subscriber Identification Module

[0224] SMS Short Message Service

[0225] SMSC Short Message Service Center

[0226] SS Supplementary Service

[0227] STK SIM Application Toolkit (short: SIM Toolkit)

[0228] USDD Unstructured Supplementary Services Data

[0229] USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data

[0230] VAS Value Added Services

[0231] Mobile device commands

[0232] In the preferred embodiment, an exemplary set of mobile devicecommands are shown in the document titled “Nokia 6090 AT-command set andinterfaces” Outline version 1.31 dated Mar. 27, 2000, which is herebyfully incorporated herein by reference.

[0233] The following describes both a high- and a low-level architectureof how an exemplary system of the present invention is implemented.

[0234] In FIG. 3 an exemplary system is used to demonstrate theusability of the described technologies, in a concrete, useful anddiscrete application: an Internet Micropayments to the Real Worldscenario. In FIG. 3 the following exemplary technology is used:

[0235] Hardware

[0236] a Sielaff™ vending machine, equipped with an RS232 interface toconnect it to a PC

[0237] an Ericsson™ Bluetooth-enabled phone

[0238] a Digianswer™ PCMCIA Bluetooth card

[0239] Software

[0240] Sun JAVA 2 JDK 1.3 (for PC side server development)

[0241] Manufacturer SDKs

[0242] Qpass™ server.

[0243] Turning now to FIG. 3 a system comprising the following pieces isshown: a vending machine 301 of type Sielaff FK 185 EC with a RS232interface 305 connected to a Compaq Laptop 307 with Digianswer Bluetoothcard. The laptop computer 307 runs custom-written software thatsimulates a virtual vending machine, sends commands to the real physicalone (if connected) and handles transactions with a Qpass service center311. The Qpass service center 311 is itself connected to the consumer'sbank by way of of the user's credit card account 313. Finally, anEricsson T28s mobile phone 309 with a wireless transmission channeladapter and a SIM card running custom-written software and using SIMApplication Toolkit features is provided. With this exemplaryconfiguration, the Compaq laptop 307 has an wireless transmissionchannel adapter (or in the future a special component to be integratedinto the vending machine) and runs custom-written software (WUMPI logicof the present invention) that simulates a virtual vending machine andsends commands to the real machine 301, and handles transactions withQpass 311. In this simple exemplary application, the vending machine 301transmits its advertising/offer via its wireless transmission channel tomobile devices in range 315 which causes the mobile device 309 todisplay the advertising/offer. The user identifies himself (via a PIN)and selects one of the offered products 317. A SIM Toolkit Applicationon the mobile device 309 sends the selection and the WUMPI logic on thelaptop 307 forwards transaction information throughout the network 319to the operator payment provider 311. The payment provider 311 logs thetransaction and adds it to the consumer's bill or deducts amount fromthe consumer's prepaid account 323 and returns a grant of payment signalto the virtual vender (laptop in this case) 321 who in turn signals 325the vending machine to dispense the selected product.

[0244] Turning now to FIG. 4 a block diagram of the fumctionalarchitecture of the exemplary computer system is indicated. Once again amobile device with an wireless transmission channel modem 401 is assumedto be within range of the vending device containing an embedded computer405. In this case the computer platform 405 has an extended systemswireless transmission channel PC adapter 402. Coupled to the computerplatform 405 is a Sun JAVA communications Application Program Interface(API) system 407, 409 and an MS SQL Server module 419. Couples to theSun JAVA communications API system 407 a WUMPI product Interface controlmodule 411 which itself is coupled to a WUMPI Phone MMI control module413, a WUMPI main module 415 and a WUMPI Qpass Module 417. The WUMPIQpass Module 417 is coupled to the MS SQL Server module 419 which iscoupled to a Qpass control station Qpass engine 421 and a MS IIS server423. The Qpass control station Qpass engine 421 provides thecommunications services to the Qpass service center 425.

[0245] Requirements

[0246] To run the Mobile Service Link (WUMPI) prototype, you will needthe following: Hardware 1 Ericsson Mobile Phone T28s or R320s 1 EricssonMobile Office IrDA modem adapter DI-28⁸ 1 GSM SIM card⁹ 1 ExtendedSystems serial IrDA adapter Jet Eye PC 1 Standard Intel PC or Laptop¹⁰ 1Sielaff vending machine FK-185 ECX with RS232 interface Software 1Mobile Service Link Installation CD-ROM Note this software system isdescribed functionally below.

[0247] Operating System

[0248] Please note that the Mobile Service Link prototype best runsunder a Windows 9x environment. Installation under Windows 2000 andWindows NT4 is possible (necessary drivers are provided on the MobileService Link CD), however, cumbersome due to missing native IrDAsupport.

[0249] The simulation version (without IrDA communication and phoneinteraction) will install and run fine on any system configuration.

[0250] Set-up

[0251] The set-up procedure for the Mobile Service Link demo consists ofrunning the automatic Mobile Service Link installer and making someadditional manual modifications afterwards.

[0252] During the Mobile Service Link Set-Up

[0253] To install the Mobile Service Link demo, insert the MobileService Link Installation CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive of your PC. TheInstall Shield set-up should launch automatically (if it does not, runSETUP.EXE from the CD's root directory). Follow the installationinstructions.

[0254] The installer will install the Mobile Service Link demo andlaunch the installers of the required third-party components (MicrosoftInfrared Driver 2.0, Sun Java 2.0 JDK 1.3 and Sun Java Media Framework2.1). It is generally recommended to use the default settings of thesetups.

[0255] Microsoft Infrared Driver 2.0 (Windows 9x Setup)

[0256] Choose the appropriate wireless transmission channel device whenprompted by the Microsoft Infrared Driver set-up (Internal IrDA driveror Extended Systems JetEye PC).

[0257] Select the physical COM port to which you will attach thewireless transmission channel device (in case you are using an externalone).

[0258] Finally make sure, that the wireless transmission channel driverwill provide application support with a virtual port setting of COM4.

[0259] Note: If this port is not available in the list, you may have touninstall an existing wireless transmission channel driver first andthen rerun the set-up manually from the \INstall\MSIR20 folder.

[0260] Ericsson Communications Suite 1.2.2 (Windows 2000 Setup)

[0261] Getting the Mobile Service Link demo to run under a Windows 2000environment is problematic, due to missing support for a virtual COMport. However, Ericsson provides a driver within its CommunicationsSuite, that enhances the built-in IrDA driver with a virtual COM port.

[0262] Nevertheless setup still is a hassle and may very likely requiremanual adjustment. It has proven to work best with the built-in IrDAport of a laptop, rather than by using an external Extend Systems JetEyePC IrDA adapter.

[0263] When you encounter the subsequent screen during setup of theCommunications Suite, make sure you check the Install without mobilephone checkbox.

[0264] Subsequently you will be prompted to select the softwarecomponents you wish to install. You can deselect all but the mandatorycomponents, since the basic IrDA driver is really all you need.

[0265] The Communications Suite will usually install a virtual COM portin the range of COM7 or COM13 (check Windows 2000 Device Manager foractual port). You need to modify the batch files, located inC:\MobileServiceLink folder, that are used to start the Mobile ServiceLink demo in order to reflect this port setting (batch files arepre-installed with a setting of COM4).

[0266] Extended Systems Quick Beam Suite 3.4 (Windows NT4)

[0267] Getting the Mobile Service Link demo to run under a Windows NT4environment is problematic, due to missing support for a virtual COMport. However, Extended Systems provide a driver within its Quick BeamSuite, that enhances Windows NT4 with an IrDA driver that supports avirtual COM port.

[0268] Nevertheless setup still is a hassle and may very likely requiremanual adjustment.

[0269] Follow the setup steps as suggested by the Quick Beam Suite andpreferably select a virtual COM port setting of COM4. Otherwise you willneed to modify the batch files that are used to start the Mobile ServiceLink demo (located in C:\MobileServiceLink folder) in order to reflectthis port setting (batch files are pre-installed with a setting ofCOM4).

[0270] Do not reboot when prompted following set-up.

[0271] Note: since a JDK will be installed with which the Mobile ServiceLink demo has been tested, no other JKD should be present on the samemachine.

[0272] Sun Java Media Framework 2.1

[0273] In case you have a previous version of JMF installed, select touninstall it first. Otherwise deselect the uninstall option. You do notneed to install support for Netscape.

[0274] Do not reboot when prompted following set-up.

[0275] Only after the entire Mobile Service Link installation (includingall 3 third party setups) has completed, reboot your machine. you willfind a Mobile Service Link folder in your Start menu.

[0276] Manual Steps Following Mobile Service Link Set-up

[0277] When the overall Movile Service Link installation has completedand you have your system, please perform the following manualmodifications before running the demo.

[0278] Microsoft Infrared Driver 2.0 (Windows 9x Environment)

[0279] Launch the Microsoft Infrared Monitor from Settings→ControlPanel. Make sure the Options and Preferences settings match the onesshown in the Microsoft Infrared Driver Set-Up Figure above.

[0280] Qpass Membership Account

[0281] In case you requested so, a Qpass user account will have beensetup for you in order to run the live demo.

[0282] In order to access your account launch Internet Explorer and goto sandmember1.qpass.com using the https prefix. This will bring up theQpass log-in page (see Qpass sign in Figure above). Bookmark this page.Use your phone's IMEI number (printed inside the phone behind thebattery) as user name and your password. Check the Save Password option.

[0283] The first time you click Sign In, another page will appear,requesting an e-mail address for verification.

[0284] Setting up the Vending Machine

[0285] In case you have a real physical vending machine of type SielaffFK 185 ECX, you will need to make some manual modifications before youcan attach it to a PC controller.

[0286] First of all you will need to create a cover for the right-handside of the machine, in order to hide the coin slot and buttons. Thecover should preferably be a piece of resistant, white, plastic withsize 1660 mm×197 mm×4 mm (broad×height×depth) and round edges.

[0287] At the position where the coin slot used to be, it shall containa square hole for the wireless transmission channel adapter, with size40 mm×30 mm (broad×height) and with the upper left corner located 500 mmfrom the top and 85 mm from the left of the cover.

[0288] The cover can be attached to the vending machine using velcrotape. This allows easy removal in order to access the lock to open andrefill the machine.

[0289] On the inside of the machine you shall fix the wirelesstransmission channel receiver in the right position, mount the displaytowards the inside of the machine, detach and remove the drink selectionkeys and connect the PC (preferably a laptop) to the RS232 interface ofthe machine.

[0290] Note: you must use a NULL-modem cable (crossed serial cable) toconnect the PC to the vending machine.

[0291] When everything has been modified and the PC is installed andconnected to the wireless transmission channel receiver and the vendingmachine, you need to set the vending machine to free delivery mode.

[0292] In order to do this, use the keypad located on the inside of themachine and type (keys symbolized by square brackets): [M], [7], [E],then repeatedly [M] until the display says “KREDITSYSTEM”, thenrepeatedly [1] until the display

[0293] says “FREIVERKAUF”, then [E] to confirm the selection, andfinally repeatedly [L]+[M] together until the display says“BETRIEBSBEREIT”.

[0294] Now all that is left is to fill up the vending machine withdrinks. Each column takes around 80 cans, so the whole machine takesaround 480 cans.

[0295] Note: the vending machine is built for European power supply(230V/50 Hz). So for usage in the US or other countries you will need apower transformator that converts from the local power standard to theEuropean one. Although this should not give any problems, themanufacturer does not take over any warranty in this case.

[0296] Demo Instructions

[0297] The following gives a step-by-step run through description of atypical Mobile Service Link examplary demonstration.

[0298] Preparation and System Start

[0299] Switch on your mobile phone and click on the IrDA modem adapterif you are using an Ericsson T28s. If you are asked to enter a PIN code,the default code is 0000.

[0300] If you are running the demonstration without a real vendingmachine, you should set the audio level of the demonstration PC highenough to be sure that you can hear it, even with the audience talking.This is to give you audible confirmation for the status of the IrDAconnection, otherwise you may never know if the connection has beenestablished or not. If a real vending machine is attached, audibleconfirmation is not necessary, since the machine will light up once aphone has been detected.

[0301] Microsoft's IrDA Monitor will beep once if it detects the phoneand will continue beeping if the connection is lost while open. Try theconnection once, by holding the phone's IrDA port to the IrDA port ofthe PC/Vending Machine. Do this to check that the volume is high enoughand to investigate the best distance and angle for the demo as well. Agood distance is usually between 1 and 3 meters, depending on the light.You should try to hold the phone in a horizontal position.

[0302] To launch the demo, use one of the shortcuts that have beeninstalled in the Mobile Service Link folder of your Start menu. Thefollowing shortcuts are installed by default.

[0303] Mobile Service Link Online

[0304] In this configuration purchases are processed real-time with theQpass account that corresponds to your mobile phone. The account'sMembership ID (the serial number of the mobile handset) and the passwordyou enter will be used for authentication and transaction processing.You need an Iternet connection and a Qpass account for your specificphone to run the demo with this set-up.

[0305] Mobile Service Link Offline

[0306] In this configuration, transaction processing with Qpass is onlysimulated. The password you enter will be authenticated, but nopurchases will be registered with Qpass.

[0307] This set-up should be used if no Internet connection or Qpassaccount is available, or if the demo needs to be kept brief.

[0308] Mobile Service Link Override

[0309] In this configuration, purchases are processed real-time with thedefault Qpass account (Membership ID: Mobile Service Link, Password:Mobile Service Link). This account will override the serial number ofthe mobile handset and the password you enter. Authentication willtherefore always succeed. You need an Internet connection to run thedemo with this set-up.

[0310] This set-up should be used if no specific Qpass account for yourmobile handset has been set-up, but you still want to show livetransaction processing.

[0311] Mobile Service Link Simulation

[0312] In this configuration, a one-drink purchase is simulated withoutinteraction with a mobile phone. A drink will be chosen at random. Thetimings are set in a way that allows the presenter to explain what ishappening. No transactions will be processed by Qpass.

[0313] This set-up should be used if no mobile phone or wirelesstransmission channel adapter is available.

[0314] Depending on your needs, you may want to launch the demomanually. To do so, open a command prompt and change to the MobileService Link root directory by typing CD \Mobile Service Link (followedby the RETURN key).

[0315] Then start the demo with the command run <Parameters><Switches>(followed by the RETURN key). Parameters and switches are defined asfollows:

[0316] Mobile Service Link Controller

[0317] This configuration is reserved for use with a real vendingmachine only. The software acts as a pure controller and no graphicaluser interface and no videos will be displayed. Text-based debuginformation will be output to the console instead.

[0318] The simplified interface allows to run the demo on less powerfilmachines.

<I-COM>

[0319] This parameter represents the serial port that will be used tocommunicate with the wireless transmission channel driver. This is avirtual port, provided by Microsoft's Infrared Driver (see installationnotes). The default setting is COM4. This parameter may be omitted ifthe demo is run in simulation mode.

[0320] Example: COM4.

<V-COM>

[0321] This parameter represents the serial port that will be used tocommunicate with the vending machine. If no vending machine is attached,this parameter should be omitted.

[0322] Example: COM2.

<-offline>

[0323] This switch runs the demo without performing live transactionswith Qpass. This allows you to show the prototype without an Internetconnection and/or Qpass account.

<-controller>

[0324] This switch runs the demo without a graphical user interface.This allows old and slow machines to act as a pure vending machinecontroller without showing graphical details and video sequences.

<-simulation>

[0325] This switch runs the demo as a pure simulation without the needfor a mobile phone or wireless transmission channel adapter. However, areal live transaction (drink chosen by random) with Qpass will takeplace, unless this switch is combined with the <-offline>switch.

<-memberid:>

[0326] This switch overrides the Qpass Membership ID retrieved from themobile phone (serial number of the handset) with the membership IDspecified. It therefore allows transactions to be re-routed to aspecific Qpass account. This is useful if you do not have a Qpassaccount set up for your specific mobile phone.

[0327] Example: -memberid:Mobile Service Link.

[0328] Note: the default Mobile Service Link Qpass account that may beused with any mobile phone has Membership ID Mobile Service Link andpassword Mobile Service Link.

<-password:>

[0329] This switch overrides the Qpass Password entered on the mobilephone (punched in by the user) with the specified password. It thereforeallows transactions to be re-routed to a specific Qpass account. This isuseful if you do not have a Qpass account set up for your specificmobile phone.

[0330] Example: -password:Mobile Service Link.

[0331] Note: the default Mobile Service Link Qpass account that may beused with any mobile phone has Membership ID Mobile Service Link andpassword Mobile Service Link.

[0332] Simulation View

[0333] The upper left-hand comer shows dynamic video sequences dependenton what the presenter does on the real phone. This is to show groups ofpeople what is happening on the phone's display, without having togather everybody around the phone itself.

[0334] Selected Product

[0335] In the upper middle part of the screenshot, you can see whichdrink has been chosen. As soon as the user selects a product, thespecific drink is highlighted with a yellow blinking border.

[0336] Execution Log

[0337] The upper right-hand comer displays detailed plain text executioninformation. A history of the 100 most recent messages is kept, so thatyou can scroll up and down to see previous messages.

[0338] Architecture View

[0339] The main part of the window illustrates the prototypearchitecture and highlights the entities that are active at each pointin time with a yellow blinking border.

[0340] Presenting the Demo

[0341] It is mentioned that in a fully configured system, the laptopwould be a tiny and comparatively cheap PC component integrated directlyinto the vending machine.

[0342] The desk on which the PC's IrDA port is mounted in the exemplarydemonstration described above is supposed to be the vending machine andthat the IrDA port would usually be integrated into the front side ofthe machine. The phone and the IRDA port would be on it.

[0343] At the start of the example, the accessory menu is empty beforeyou start.

[0344] The vending machine then proceeds to scan for phones in range, soas you walk into range holding the phone so that its IrDA port points tothe PC's IrDA port a detection should be made. Once the connection isestablished, Go to the Extras menu of the phone and select theAccessories submenu. You can navigate using the phone's arrow- andyes/no-keys. You will see another submenu called Mobile Service Link.Select this one as well. You will be prompted for your Qpass PIN code tolog on. There is no need to type the Qpass Membership ID, since you canuse the phone's globally unique serial number that is read directly fromthe handset. This is an advantage since you want to avoid allunnecessary typing on the phone.

[0345] The Membership ID and the PIN code are now sent to the Qpassserver to authenticate the user. What you entered can be seen in theExecution Log.

[0346] If the authentication failed, you return to the log-in page for asecond try. This time you type in the correct PIN code. When the secondattempt at authentication has been successfully completed the drinkslist will be displayed. Select an item from the list by using thearrow-keys. Confirm your selection with yes.

[0347] A message will ask you to confirm the purchase and display theprice of the beverage. Again press yes.

[0348] The transaction has now been transmitted to the Qpass ServiceCentre and is being processed. The Qpass Service Centre will confirm orrefuse it depending on your credit limit. Once the transaction has beencompleted the user could go directly to the personalised Qpass memberweb site and see that the purchase has been registered.

[0349] After the transaction has succeeded, the can of drink will bereleased. Note: you may walk out of IrDA range with the phone andtemporarily lose the connection. This is no problem, unless you do notget back within 60 seconds. Be sure the connection is re-establishedbefore you continue (beeps indicating the loss of connection shouldstop).

[0350] The phone will now ask you if you'd like to purchase anotherdrink. Press yes and the user returns directly to the drinks listinstead of to the log-on screen. Next time you are prompted to conductanother purchase answer no. The phone will then display a final “Thankyou” message for using the Qpass service. Note that this message, justlike all the others that were displayed throughout the demo, could wellalso be used for dynamic advertising, since it is being generated on thePC side.

[0351] If the demo was run with live transaction processing enabled,open up the Internet Explorer Web browser, which should be configured todirectly bring up the Qpass member homepage associated with your phone.

[0352] Log on (Membership ID and password should be stored) and go toStatements and then Current Statement. The purchases have actually beenregistered.

[0353] Note: it may take 1-2 minutes from the transaction to the momentwhere the purchase is listed on the web page.

[0354] This exemplary Mobile Service Link discussion describes how theinvention pereforms the follows actions:

[0355] Hijacking the Phone

[0356] The Mobile Service Link (WUMPI) invention is not just another oneof “dial-a-drink” mechanism. The vending machine has been chosen becauseit is a very visual example of the inventions ability for productstaking control of mobile phones (as the one wireless universal mobiledevice that everybody has these days) as their interface to offerservices as users walk within range.

[0357] For example, you could also imagine using the phone to unlockyour car or to modify printer settings on a laser printer without anybuttons.

[0358] Micropayments to the Real World

[0359] Another difference in this invention is the use of a micropaymentsolution instead of charging the purchase to your phone bill. Untiltoday, all micropayment systems, without exception, were only designedto conduct purchases for digital goods such as information, news andmusic.

[0360] Applicants invention, for the first time, demonstrates a possibleextension of these systems to a complete marketplace, including physicalgoods and services.

[0361] Bypass the Network Operators

[0362] Although the Mobile Service Link concept of applicants' inventionuses a mobile phone, the architecture completely bypasses the wirelessnetwork. No calls are made, no SMSs sent, no costs show up on the user'sphone bill. The great advantage of using the mobile phone is that almosteverybody has one, and even more importantly: everybody knows how to useit.

[0363] Ease-of-Use

[0364] Compared to other “dial-a-drink” systems, the Mobile Service Linkof applicants' invention has a user interface is very user-friendly.There is no need to type or dial a long phone number, the transaction isquick and it doesn't create additional costs. As soon as the user feelsthirsty and looks at the phone's display, the drinks list is alreadythere.

[0365] The following provides an exemplary embodiment of the currentWUMPI phone control technology which makes use of an Erickson R320smobile device with IR port, a PC with an IR attachment connected to thevending device, and a JAVA application on the PC which talks via thePC's IR port to the IR port on the mobile device, whereby the user canchoose an item displayed on the phone's menu by using the buttons on thephone. Those skilled in these arts will recognize many ways to programthe various modules to interact with one another, and therefore we onlybelow an exemplary embodiment of the Main module, the Phone module andthe Vending Machine module, and these modules may be implemented in manyways as those skilled in these arts will recognize.

[0366] The menu for example might look like the following:

[0367] Coke, 1.50

[0368] Classic Coke, 1.50

[0369] Diet Coke, 1.50

[0370] Crystal Coke, 1.50

[0371] Sprite, 1.50

[0372] Fanta, 1.50

[0373] Orangina, 1.50

[0374] Perrier, 2.00

[0375] Ice Tea, 2.00

[0376] Mountain Dew, 1.50

[0377] Dr. Pepper, 1.50

[0378] It will be obvious to those skilled in these arts that this WUMPIlogic can be applied to any Bluetooth enabled vendor device such assupermarkets, stores, taxis, parking meters, concert box-office. Forexample, jumping on a train, and paying for the trip on your telephonebill at the end of the month; paying for a taxi, concert tickets, yourparking meter, or playing videos, music or Net games on your Palm Pilotor other PDA between classes, debiting your prepaid account.

[0379] Mobile devices such as GSM phones or PDAs, micropaymentsolutions, as they are known today from the Internet, can be ported tothe real world using devices such as applicants invention describedherein. In addition, a wide range of value-added services can bedelivered directly to the point of sale. The main concepts shown hereare the dynamic lookup of services, the extension of user interfaces toa mobile phone and the porting of Internet micropayments to the realworld.

[0380] Having described the invention in terms of a preferredembodiment, it will be recognized by those skilled in the art thatvarious types of general purpose computer hardware may be substitutedfor the configuration described above to achieve an equivalent result.Similarly, it will be appreciated that arithmetic logic circuits areconfigured to perform each required means in the claims. It will beapparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variationsof the preferred embodiment are possible, such as different mobiletelephony systems may be used, different communications media such asdifferent wireless communications protocols, as well as different typesof mobile devices may be used by users, all of which fall within thetrue spirit and scope of the invention as measured by the followingclaims.

We claim:
 1. A computer implemented method for reverse-control of awireless mobile device in order to perform functions using the wirelessmobile device in addition to those for which the device was designed,the method comprising the steps of: providing a vendor device with acomputer platform coupled to a wireless transmission channel port; andtransmitting from the vendor device via the wireless transmissionchannel port to a compatible wireless transmission channel port on awireless mobile device a program to take control of the wireless mobiledevice's menuing, interaction and display functions.
 2. The method ofclaim 1 comprising an additional step of causing the wireless mobiledevice to interact wirelessly with the vendor device and a relatedmicropayments accounting system.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein theinteraction with a related micropayments accounting system will causethe vendor device to provide a product or service to the holder of thewireless mobile device.
 4. The method of claim 2 wherein the interactionwith a related micropayments accounting system will cause a charge to bemade to the account of the holder of the wireless mobile device.
 5. Themethod of claim 4 wherein the step of causing a charge to be made to theaccount of the holder of the wireless mobile device produces a debit toa prepaid digital account or aggregates the debit with other currentdebits to be billed to the account holder at month end.
 6. A system forreverse-control of a wireless mobile device in order to performfunctions using the wireless mobile device in addition to those forwhich the device was designed, the system comprising: a vendor devicecoupled to a computer platform which comprises a wireless transmissionchannel port; and transmitting from the vendor device via the wirelesstransmission channel port to a compatible wireless transmission channelport on a wireless mobile device, a program to take control of thewireless mobile device's menuing, interaction and display functions. 7.A system for reverse-control of a wireless mobile device in order toperform functions using the wireless mobile device in addition to thosefor which the device was designed, the system comprising: a computerhaving a processor, a memory, connections to the Internet and a wirelesstransmission channel port; a vendor device electronically coupled to thecomputer; and a logic mechanism coupled to computer whereby the vendordevice can transmit via the wireless transmission channel port to acompatible wireless transmission channel port on a wireless mobiledevice, a program to take control of the wireless mobile device'smenuing, interaction and display functions.
 8. The system of claim 7wherein the program to take control of the wireless mobile device'smenuing, interaction and display functions comprises an additional logicmechanism for causing the wireless mobile device to interact wirelesslywith the vendor device and a related micropayments accounting system. 9.The system of claim 8 wherein the interaction with a relatedmicropayments accounting system will cause the vendor device to providea product or service to the holder of the wireless mobile device. 10.The system of claim 7 wherein the interaction with a relatedmicropayments accounting system will cause a charge to be made to theaccount of the holder of the wireless mobile device.
 11. The system ofclaim 10 wherein the causing a charge to be made to the account of theholder of the wireless mobile device produces a debit to a prepaiddigital account or aggregates the debit with other current debits to bebilled to the account holder at month end.
 12. A system forreverse-control of a wireless mobile device in order to performfunctions using the wireless mobile device in addition to those forwhich the device was designed, the system comprising: a computer havinga processor, a memory, connections to the Internet and a wirelesstransmission channel port; a vendor device electronically coupled to thecomputer; and means for permitting the vendor device to transmit via thewireless transmission channel port to a compatible wireless transmissionchannel port on a wireless mobile device, a means for taking control ofthe wireless mobile device's menuing, interaction and display functions.13. A computer program embedded on a computer readable medium forreverse-control of a wireless mobile device in order to performfunctions using the wireless mobile device in addition to those forwhich the device was designed, comprising: a first code mechanism forrecognizing a wireless mobile device within communications range of avendor device; a second code mechanism coupled to the first codemechanism for transmitting a third code mechanism to the wireless mobiledevice, wherein the third code mechanism takes control of the wirelessmobile device's menuing, interaction and display functions.
 14. Thecomputer program embedded on the computer readable medium of claim 13wherein the third code mechanism contains additional code mechanisms tocommunicate with the vendor device and with a related micropaymentsaccounting system to cause the vendor device to provide a product orservice to the holder of the wireless mobile device.
 15. The computerprogram embedded on the computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein thethird code mechanism contains additional code mechanisms to communicatewith the vendor device and with a related micropayments accountingsystem to cause a charge to be made to the account of the holder of thewireless mobile device.
 16. An apparatus for capturing control of awireless mobile device comprising: a product device containing awireless mechanism under the control of a microprocessor for recognizinga presence of at least one wireless mobile device; the microprocessor inthe product device taking electronic control of the wireless mobiledevice whereby the product device can send data to and receive data fromthe wireless mobile device; and a link to a micropayment system coupledto the microprocessor whereby the product device can receive an indiciaof payment for a service performed by the product device in response toa command from the wireless mobile device.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16wherein the wireless mobile device is a mobile phone.
 18. The apparatusof claim 16 wherein the wireless mobile device is a personal dataassistant device.
 19. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the wirelessmechanism is an wireless transmission channel mechanism.
 20. Theapparatus of claim 16 wherein the wireless mechanism is a Bluetoothmechanism.
 21. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the product device is adrink vending machine.
 22. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the productdevice is a cigarette vending machine.
 23. The apparatus of claim 16wherein the product device is a copy vending machine.
 24. The apparatusof claim 16 wherein the product device is a food vending machine. 25.The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the product device is a personalservice vending machine.
 26. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein theproduct device is a parking meter.
 27. The apparatus of claim 16 whereinthe micropayment system is a Qpass micropayment machine.
 28. Anapparatus for capturing control of a wireless mobile device comprising:a product device containing a means for recognizing a presence of atleast one wireless mobile device, and for taking electronic control ofthe wireless mobile device whereby the product device can send data toand receive data from the wireless mobile device; and a means forlinking to a micropayment system whereby the product device can receivean indicia of payment for a service performed by the product device inresponse to a command from the wireless mobile device.
 29. A computerimplemented method for reverse-control of a wireless mobile device inorder to perform functions using the wireless mobile device in additionto those for which the device was designed, the method comprising theacts of: providing a vendor device with a wireless mechanism coupled toa wireless transmission channel port under the control of a computerplatform; transmitting from the vendor device via the wirelesstransmission channel port to a compatible wireless transmission channelport on a wireless mobile device a program to take control of thewireless mobile device's menuing, interaction and display functions,whereby data can be interchanged between the vendor device and thewireless mobile device; and providing an electronic link whereby thewireless mobile device can interact wirelessly with the vendor deviceand a related micropayments accounting system.
 30. The method of claim29 wherein the interaction with the related micropayments accountingsystem will cause the vendor device to provide a product or service tothe holder of the wireless mobile device.
 31. The method of claim 29wherein the interaction with the related micropayments accounting systemwill cause a charge to be made to the account of the holder of thewireless mobile device.
 32. The method of claim 31 wherein the step ofcausing a charge to be made to the account of the holder of the wirelessmobile device produces a debit to a prepaid digital account oraggregates the debit with other current debits to be billed to theaccount holder at month end.
 33. A system for reverse-control of awireless mobile device in order to perform functions using the wirelessmobile device in addition to those for which the device was designed,the system comprising: a vendor device having a wireless transmissionchannel port coupled to a computer platform; a mechanism in the vendordevice coupled to the wireless transmission channel port enabled torecognize the electronic presence of a wireless mobile device, wherebythe mechanism can cause the transmission of a program to take control ofthe wireless mobile device's menuing, interaction and display functions.34. A system for reverse-control of a wireless mobile device in order toperform functions using the wireless mobile device in addition to thosefor which the device was designed, the system comprising: a computerhaving a processor, a memory, connections to the Internet and a wirelesstransmission channel port; a vendor device electronically coupled to thecomputer; a logic mechanism coupled to computer whereby the vendordevice can transmit via the wireless transmission channel port to acompatible wireless transmission channel port on a wireless mobiledevice, a program to take control of the wireless mobile device'smenuing, interaction and display functions; and wherein the program totake control of the wireless mobile device's menuing, interaction anddisplay functions comprises an additional logic mechanism for causingthe wireless mobile device to interact with a micropayments accountingsystem.
 35. The system of claim 34 wherein the interaction with amicropayments accounting system will cause the vendor device to providea product or service to the holder of the wireless mobile device. 36.The system of claim 34 wherein the interaction with a relatedmicropayments accounting system will cause a charge to be made to theaccount of the holder of the wireless mobile device.
 37. The system ofclaim 36 wherein the causing a charge to be made to the account of theholder of the wireless mobile device produces a debit to a prepaiddigital account or aggregates the debit with other current debits to bebilled to the account holder at month end.
 38. A system forreverse-control of a wireless mobile device in order to performfunctions using the wireless mobile device in addition to those forwhich the device was designed, the system comprising: a computer havinga processor, a memory, connections to the Internet and a wirelessprotocol port; a vendor device electronically coupled to the computer;means for permitting the vendor device to transmit via the wirelessprotocol port to a compatible wireless protocol port on a wirelessmobile device; and a means for taking control of the wireless mobiledevice's menuing, interaction and display functions.